Introduction
My name is Daniel Barnett and I am from Westchester County, New York. The goal of The Personal is Public: Writing with Archives and Arts english class was to help strengthen myself as writer not only for structure but to help engage myself with a specific audience based on a genre. Anyone can formulate words together and make sentences but the true gift is to be able to draw abstract concepts to a bigger picture. This portfolio demonstrates my progression as a writer to connect to the desired audience through genre by synthesizing ideas through idea development. To summarize, the portfolio is meant to show how my writing improved over the course of the semester from a High Schooler to a member of a college community. I hope you enjoy my writing journey through the beginning of my college career.
Known-New Chain
At first I did not make sure my ideas connect in a cohesive manner, I simply wrote without looking for the big picture. While writing the proposal for the curated exhibit, I had difficulty connecting my ideas from sentence to sentence. I noticed that the ideas did not connect when revising the proposal my sentences seemed to contain more information than my audience would be able to process. The proposal was an assignment to transform a Civil Rights Era theme into a curated exhibit where an audience could engage in history, english and the arts. My theme for the curated exhibit was to show the never ending cycle of discrimination through the deterioration of the Black-Jewish relationship deterioration. Through my curated exhibit I used visual logic in order to show flow of how I want my theme to be carried out by the audience. To adhere to the audience the genre had to be in consideration in the process since every genre contains a different audience therefore a different format or writing style would need to be applied. Writing style is important to consider since ideas would need to be developed in a unique way so synthesis of ideas need to build off from in order to create a complex writing piece.
To view how I improved up to my curated exhibit please use the red links provided to view other writing pieces where my ideas did not connect and it effected the audience’s understanding.
Artifact 1: The Synthesis assignment of Paul Robeson’s connection to James Earl Jones was a free write assignment where the objective was to find a linkage between the two of their respective histories and synthesize it into a writing piece through idea development.
Artifact 2: The Statement of Purpose is a section of my proposal which showcased how I took a singular theme of housing discrimination and built off of it through the known-new chain through idea development as well as analysis and summary.
Artifact 3: The Exhibition Introduction is the first aspect of my curate exhibit. The primary objective is introduce the topic or genre to the audience so they know what to expect while looking through my exhibit. It provides a context of my theme so the audience is able to comprehend my visual logic that I took into account while producing this exhibit. Without the flow of the context of the exhibition introduction the audience would find little motivation to continue on with my exhibit.
Featured Artifact: In my Third Diary Entry I focused on the peer review session that I had in regards to my portfolio. This took some thought because it took me some trouble reaching the 500 required minimum but when once I thought about it I could not stop writing. My ideas sort of flowed out my head and onto the paper. I believe this piece is my best exemplifies my progression and development using the new-known chain. I focused on the detail to make it as specific as possible to showcase the synthesis of my ideas. Since this was a diary the audience was key in the formation of thought. A diary is usually meant to be private but for this assignment we were meant to send it to our professor to display how far we are along our portfolio journey. For this assignment I did not write just to write for the grade I took my work into consideration in order to convey my goals as not only as a student but a writer as well. This assignment in my opinion wraps up my achievement in the course quite nicely due to the fact it shows how I learned how to make abstract ideas connect and truly think outside the box as a professional college writer.
Structure
Through the course of this semester I demonstrated progression through how to structure my writing. I believed that I am able to reframe or structure my thoughts in a cohesive manner using rhetorical listening in order to pinpoint cultural connections in a summation or summary of ideas. Summaries can be tricky since the have to match the genre of writing assigned for the designated assignment such as proposals, narratives, annotative bibliographies or diary entries. Once I understand the genres I am able to rearrange paragraphs to fit a specific structures that will adhere to the audience liking.
To view how I improved up in structure please use the red links provided to view other writing pieces where my ideas did not connect and it effected the audience’s understanding.
Artifact 1: In my first draft of my Annotated Bibliography the objective was to showcase how the secondary sources were vital for the proposal. There were three key structural components that I needed to synthesize in the piece. I needed to provide a short summary of what the source entailed, I needed to state the importance of the information within the source and how will it be included in my exhibit. In my first draft I failed to provide specific and really expand on ideas and just provided the bare minimal instead of structuring it correctly.
Artifact 2: In my first draft of my Proposal for the curated exhibit I follow the guidelines of how to structure a proposal for an exhibit which is outlined as followed: Introduction, Statement of Purpose, Objective, Plan of Action and annotated bibliography. I had the right order of the structure but I failed to structure each section the correct manner.
Artifact: 3: In my first draft of my Narrative Essay I took on the persona of someone viewing my curated exhibit for the first time. The goal was to walk through the exhibit and provide internal and exterior reactions to what I wanted a viewer to feel when viewing my exhibit. I took to the theatrical reactions too much that I loss a grip on the structural content of my exhibit.
Featured Artifact: In my final draft of my Narrative Essay I restructured my thoughts to make sure my ideas cam out clear and so the audience fully understood what the exhibit entailed without even viewing it. Hopefully the audience understood the connections between the content and the reaction and maybe once they view the curated exhibit they would experience similar reactions too. Genre depends on the structure of a piece. Each genre tells a different story and the way you tell the story makes the difference, it either makes a significant impact or does not. The structure should allow the viewer to question your piece to further analyze your process because ultimately writing is a lengthy process with one goal: to reach an appropriate audience of scholars.
Reflective Letter
Throughout the semester I believed that I have shown growth not only in my development as writer but also in my ability to see connections and adjoin them in order to fit the genre. My portfolio demonstrates my strides for improvement through the various assignments administered by the course. The artifacts or assignments I use to showcase my improvement are the proposal for the curated exhibit, portions of the curated exhibit, the narrative essay and some free writing exercises. The assignments listed each contain a plethora of genres to consider in order to fully engage in the desired audience. For the proposal it was required to write for the audience of a museum board in order to get a exhibit improved, for the narrative essay it was required to describe a journey through an exhibit and the intended audience was for those interested in learning about exhibits surround Civil Rights, the curated exhibit audience were people going to museum to learn new topics so the information had to be presented in a clear manner so the ideas flow and make sense and for the free writing exercise one must find connections to the topics listed for the audience of its intended nature. I tried to include every genre that I encountered in this course in order to ensure a variety of my understanding of how writing is about understanding different means of conveying information and in each way the intended audience is different every single time.
As a writer it is important to incorporate other’s ideas and works in order to fully grasp the greater overarching topic and the concept of integration. Specifically, in my curated exhibit and my proposal I included information from A Raisin in the Sun and Jewish encyclopedias in order to summarize and the synthesize the connection between discrimination between two minority groups during the Civil Rights Era. Without outside information I would be making general assumptions rather making strong arguments. Being able to evaluate ideas is required to make a strong argument because one must think critical in order to achieve success or otherwise you writing would not be significant and lack substantial value. For example, without the knowledge that Jews were discriminated similar to Blacks during the Civil Rights Era I would not be able draw connections and assess their deteriorated formed relationship in a just a civil way. This course taught me to look beyond of the written word and to explore and endless spectrum of conceptual of knowledge that I should grasp in order to demonstrate I took knowledge from the outside world to incorporate in my work to make it my own. However, writing is not a singular entity that you can do yourself, it requires the creation of knowledge form others in order to be able to further comprehend the meaning of the connection between your ideas and the ideas of others. A portfolio in general seems nameless or lack a personal attachment to the creator and the reviewer so I included an introduction at the beginning of the portfolio to introduce myself to the Portfolio Assessment committee so you judge the personal along with the work and not simply the work itself. The work is elevated even further once the author is known and understood than without it.
In order to elevate a writing piece there are several steps a writer must go through in order to achieve a final product. Writing is a process that should be completed continuously through your writing career. My portfolio was not thought of over night it took time to truly formulate my ideas in a coherent and cohesive manner. My ideas first formulated in class when I stood up as a volunteer to show how to use WordPress and what the intentions of the portfolio is. I did not know that demonstrating would branch into a web of thoughts that brought about the portfolio that you see above. I made diagrams of the portfolio on scrap piece of paper and looked at example of portfolios online to fully comprehend the format. I did not copy any format, I made my own. A lot of my process to make my work my own is verbal, I am a talker and talking it out to someone or even just to my self helps me grasp the larger picture of progress rather than simply writing for a grade. In writing there is no grade or rhyme or reason it is the heart that showcases the true nature of the writer’s self upon the white canvas. Writing is not perfect, it is a tedious process that is orchestrated to turn the simple of ideas into a work of art. My journey through this writing process in this course has opened my ideas to see beyond and hope for more in my writing.